Freeroll tournaments are free, there are no entry fees and you can enter them with a zero account balance. If you do well, you are awarded a ticket to a tournament that pays. Chris Ferguson, a great player, built up a big bankroll just from playing in freeroll tournaments.

Steps

1

Know what is a freeroll tournament. A freeroll tournament is a poker tournament that is free to enter and sponsored by the online site. The two, of many, types of poker, in order of popularity, played are no-limit hold 'em and limit hold 'em. The game is designed so the tournament can end in a reasonable amount of time, thus luck is a factor in these tournaments. A large number of players will play in these tournaments and because there is no entry fee, the play will be wild and aggressive by some people hoping to get lucky. The top 72 finishers in these tournaments win tickets to tournaments with entry fees and a $2,000 payout. This is a great tournament for beginners to learn the game.

2

Learn the rules of hold 'em and decide how many variations of poker you will play. Learn the rules of poker from observation of poker online or on television, from online websites, from books, and from online websites. There are a number of reputable online poker sites and this article covers the small ones by PokerStars because they have the most freeroll tournaments. That being said, no-limit poker outnumbers limit poker by about 9/2, so if you want a lot of action no-limit is your choice. There are other factors in deciding what variation of poker to learn and play, and these games are similar except for the betting structure. Study these two hold 'em games and decide which you want to put your efforts into.

3

Choose an online poker site. Although PokerStars is the best choice, investigate on your own, the offerings of the different online poker sites. On television, magazines, on the internet and newspapers notice the companies associated with big global, poker tournaments and PokerStars will pop-up frequently. If you bets sports too, sites like Sportsbook.com (part of the Cake Poker network) has a fair number of freeroll tournaments in addition to their main service of sportsbetting.

4

Download the game from PokerStars.

For PokerStars there are two types of downloads and choose the real money download. The play money download is for play money only.

With Cake Poker with its many participating sites, choose Sportsbook.com because they have a lower withdrawal minimum than Sportsbetting.com.

5

Establish an account by choosing an avatar, username, password and whatever else they prompt you for. By thoroughly investigating the trustworthiness of PokerStars, from the previous step, will you have the confidence to reveal information to the site. Read the rules for usernames and avatars because they will be permanent.

6

Play in the play money ring and tournaments to get a feel for the game. Since you have not deposited money into your account there are no worries. In a tournament, the table is nine seating, but you will have to test your wits with between one to eight players. In your practice, vary the amount of opponents you have, because with fewer opponents, you must play more cards and play more aggressively if necessary.

7

Register and play in the freeroll tournaments. Set aside several hours because these small tournaments (9,000 players) can take some time to completed. If you will play no-limit, choose the Hubble's No-Limit tournament and if you choose limit - choose the Hawking's Limit tournaments. The top 72 finishers will be awarded tournament tickets to a paying tournament and these tickets will not expire if you don't use them. These tournaments can fill up fast, so register as soon as registration begins, but there are many tournaments, throughout the day, at PokerStars. Registration begins 45 minutes prior to the start of the tournament, sometimes these tournaments fill up fast and at other times they take up to 45 minutes to fill up.

8

Investigate the other freeroll tournaments, but be aware that these tournaments are much bigger in entrants (25,000 players). Check into the Daily 90 Grand Freeroll. Despite the large number of players in this tournament and the fewer prizes awarded, the value of the awards are much bigger.

9

If you have a tournament ticket and want to use it for a paying tournament - sign on for a Weekly Round One or Weekly Round Two tournament. These tournaments are held on Saturdays and Sundays and registration can be done on the weekdays. Look at what variation of poker is set for these tournaments. If no-limit is your game and they offer seven card stud, wait until a no-limit tournament is offered in the future.